Dedicated to Horror, Post Apocalyptic Fiction and Thrillers

Ronald Malfi – The Night Parade Review

David and his daughter Ellie are on the run while society is falling apart around them. People are acting strange, some are see things, and others just stare at nothing in particular. The official name of this epidemic is Wanderer’s Folly. Those who have the disease are found unaware of where they are and what they are doing. Ronald Malfi has constructed a frightening end of the world story with a premise that feels completely plausible. As he describes the events in flashback scenes I found one in particular really unsettling. The scene involved the ice cream man driving down the road in the middle of the night. The music is playing as if it’s a hot summer day and everything is normal. This scene is so completely backwards it gave me chills. It shows how upside down a person with Wanderer’s Folly acts.

David and Ellie have left town and are running because he thinks the CDC is responsible for his wife’s death. She had some form of immunity to the disease. The doctors hoped she was the cure and with enough testing they would find out why she was immune. Ellie also appears to be immune and no one knows why. Her father will do anything to keep her from becoming a guinea pig for CDC tests. David and Ellie find themselves in scary situations. They don’t know who they can trust or if anyone can be trusted. Every encounter is tense and the wrongness of the world pours from the pages. Ronald Malfi had me in a constant state of worry about these characters safety. The need to find out what happened next was unrelenting. I thought the storytelling was great, it was a fast read, and it had characters I loved. That pretty much makes The Night Parade a great book as far as I’m concerned. The Night Parade has become my new favorite story by Ronald Malfi. I think this is one you won’t want to miss out on, this is an excellent adventure.

First the birds disappeared.
Then the insects took over.
Then the madness began . . .

They call it Wanderer’s Folly–a disease of delusions, of daydreams and nightmares. A plague threatening to wipe out the human race.

After two years of creeping decay, David Arlen woke up one morning thinking that the worst was over. By midnight, he’s bleeding and terrified, his wife is dead, and he’s on the run in a stolen car with his eight-year-old daughter, who may be the key to a cure.

Ellie is a special girl. Deep. Insightful. And she knows David is lying to her. Lying about her mother. Lying about what they’re running from. And lying about what he sees when he takes his eyes off the road . . .

Praise-

“I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The setting, the words, the ending. Color me impressed.” –Melissa Reads on The Night Parade

“The Night Parade has a creepy vibe and some genuinely terrifying moments. I even teared up a time or two. It’s everything I look for in a great read.” – Frank Errington on The Night Parade

“One cannot help but think of writers like Peter Straub and Stephen King.”
—FearNet

“A thrilling, edge-of-your-seat ride that should not be missed.”
—Suspense Magazine

Ronald Malfi, Biography-

Ronald Malfi is an award-winning author of many novels and novellas in the horror, mystery, and thriller categories from various publishers, including The Night Parade, this summer’s 2016 release from Kensington.

In 2009, his crime drama, Shamrock Alley, won a Silver IPPY Award. In 2011, his ghost story/mystery novel, Floating Staircase, was a finalist for the Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award for best novel, a Gold IPPY Award for best horror novel, and the Vincent Preis International Horror Award. His novel Cradle Lake garnered him the Benjamin Franklin Independent Book Award (silver) in 2014. December Park, his epic childhood story, won the Beverly Hills International Book Award for suspense in 2015.

Most recognized for his haunting, literary style and memorable characters, Malfi’s dark fiction has gained acceptance among readers of all genres.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1977, and eventually relocated to the Chesapeake Bay area, where he currently resides with his wife and two children.

If you are a blogger, author, or member of the media and you would like to feature The Night Parade or Ronald Malfi in a review or interview, please contact Erin Al-Mehairi, publicist, at hookofabook@hotmail.com. Thanks!